CAT/C/ZAF/CO/2
(d)
Provide the Department of Home Affairs with adequate human and
financial resources to conduct the process of refugee status determination and ensure
the training of officials on the physical and psychological effects of torture that may
affect victims participating in refugee status determination and refugee appeals board
processes;
(e)
Refrain from detaining asylum seekers and foreign nationals in
prolonged detention without a warrant at the Lindela Repatriation Centre, promote
alternatives to detention and revise policy in order to bring it into line with the
Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of
Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention;
(f)
Ensure adequate living conditions, including by reducing overcrowding
and providing hygiene, medical and other services, at the Lindela Repatriation Centre,
all other immigration centres and police detention facilities;
(g)
Ensure that refugees, asylum seekers and foreign nationals and migrants
have full access to health care;
(h)
Deliver child protection services to migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee
children, and provide basic health and social services as well as specialized
rehabilitation services to asylum seekers and refugees who have been tortured;
(i)
Take vigorous measures to eradicate manifestations of racism and
xenophobia and prevent xenophobic violence, ensure the prompt investigation,
prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators and provide protection and redress to
the victims, with adequate remedies;
(j)
Speed up the adoption of the bill on preventing and combating hate
crime and hate speech, which is currently under consideration in Parliament.
Redress and rehabilitation
38.
While the Committee takes note of the information provided in the replies of the
State party to the list of issues that the Prevention and Combating of Torture of Persons Act
does not specifically mention compensation, it is concerned that victims of torture, both of
torture that occurred in the apartheid era and torture that occurred in the period after the
onset of constitutional democracy, may not receive adequate redress, including appropriate
compensation and rehabilitation (arts. 2 and 14).
39.
The State party should amend the Prevention and Combating of Torture of
Persons Act and other relevant legislation, such as the Criminal Procedure Act, in
order to operationalize redress for victims of acts of torture that includes the five
forms of reparation outlined in general comment No. 3.
Corporal punishment of children
40.
The Committee is concerned that corporal punishment in the home continues to be
legal in the State party as “reasonable or moderate chastisement” by parents (arts. 2 and 16).
41.
The State party should enact the children’s third amendment bill as a matter of
priority in order to explicitly and clearly prohibit the corporal punishment of children
in all settings and should take effective measures to prevent such punishment. It
should conduct campaigns to raise awareness among professionals and the general
public about the harmful effects of corporal punishment and to promote positive, nonviolent disciplinary methods in education and in bringing up and caring for children.
Follow-up procedure
42.
The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 17 May 2020,
information on follow-up to the Committee’s recommendations on ensuring the
prompt investigation and prosecution of all deaths in custody; speeding up the
ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention; and ensuring that all
allegations of torture by law enforcement officials are referred by the Independent
Police Investigative Directorate to the National Prosecuting Authority (see paras. 23
11